Psalms 150

“Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary:

praise him in the firmament of his power.

Praise him for his mighty acts:

praise him according to his excellent greatness.

Praise him with the sound of the trumpet:

praise him with the psaltery and harp.

Praise him with the timbrel and dance:

praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

Praise him upon the loud cymbals:

praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.

Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.

Praise ye the Lord.”

Psalms 150 opens and closes with the same command – to praise the Lord. The subsequent verses in this chapter tells where to praise him (his sanctuary, the firmament of his power), and why we should praise him (his mighty acts, and according to his greatness), and what we should use to praise him (musical instruments and our bodies). Prior to repeating the command, clarification is provided on who the command is for – every thing that has breath.

Sequence: command, where, why, with what, who, and finally the command again.

There are so many benefits of being a praiser. But the one that I believe that gets over looked the most is it takes the focus off of us and puts it back God, where it belongs.

The battleground of every struggle we face is in the mind. We do not wrestle with flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).

We can dress the part and speak the part. But in our mind the truth of what we feel, what we think, and where we are spiritually is ever present. We can fool people all day long on the outside, but the truth is ever with us on the inside. We cannot escape it. We can lie to ourselves, but God always knows the truth of us.

Having said that – we are back to the battleground of our struggles, our mind.

To truly be free we must willingly uncover our faults to God and allow him to work on them with us. We use the weapon of praise to do this. God told us to cast our cares on him because he cares for us. He also told us to always pray and not faint. He told us to pray without ceasing. Even songs tell us to “tell God all about it.” As we pour out all of our “stuff” on God, we need to be able to get the focus from us back on to God.

Praise causes us to think about the awesome God we serve. We can thank him for bearing the burden of the “stuff” we pour out to him.

During those times when we have so much going on in our lives, and it is to stressful to even think about them, there is praise. We turn the focus from those things, and consider God instead. We can choose to bless God, rather than dwell on the drama of our life.

Through praise we can choose to place the cares of this life at his feet, and go into praise instead.

Rather than trying to figure out how to handle stressful situations at work, in our relationships, etc. we choose instead to place them at God’s feet, through praise. Praise removes the burden from your shoulders, and gives it to God instead.

Praise brings God into our “right now” moments. The awesome thing about praise is that it can be done out loud or it can be done quietly at a desk, in a meeting, or in the middle of any situation- and know one knows but you and God.

Praise is a command that should be obeyed. Yes, there are times when you might no feeling like praising God, but don’t give in to it. The benefits we receive from praise far outweigh any sense of inconvenience we might have momentarily felt.

Because all things work together for the good of those that live him (Romans 8:28). Even the sacrifice of praise is worth it in the end.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise he the Lord!